Abstract
In 2003, Columbia University announced its plan to expand its Morningside Heights into a 17-acre area of West Harlem known as Manhattanville. The University’s expansion plan called for the acquisition and demolition of all but three buildings in the project’s footprint and the construction of a state of the art campus over a roughly 30-year period. This article examines the discourses, debates and politics surrounding the project and, in particular, the University’s demand for exclusive control of the site and ultimate pursuit of eminent domain. To that end, university officials claimed that the expansion would bolster the city’s knowledge based economy and, as a conse­quence, serve the “public good”— a requirement for the exercise of eminent domain. By contrast, critics of the project argued for a mixed-use redevelopment plan that would include affordable housing and other community-deined amenities.

Executive Summary
Throughout the world, countries are seeking pragmatic solutions to increase the efficiency of their energy systems through the use of smarter energy distribution and the advancement of technology. The drivers for change vary from mandates to economics to environmental conditions. Within the United States, utilities are being required to integrate more renewables and increase the efficiency of the demand-side user.
Demand-side reductions and renewables are important investments for the overall system, but often times these foci result in a missed opportunity. Each day, millions of Btus1 of thermal and electric energy potential are lost through wasted heat or stranded energy. Waste heat occurs when a process creates thermal energy as a by-product that must be disposed of using cooling water from rivers or other bodies of water, through cooling towers or otherwise exhausted to the atmosphere. Most often this heat is produced by industrial processes or electricity…

Introduction
Since the introduction of the “soundscape” concept by R.M. Schafer in the 1970s [1], many projects, e.g., the COST Action “Soundscape of European Cities and Landscapes” [2], and studies have dealt with the perception of the acoustic environment in a context, that is considering the interrelationships between person, activity, and place, in space and time. Thus, soundscape research is a step forward in noise control, as it does not conceive noise per se but rather reconceives the conditions and purposes of its production, perception, and evaluation, accounting for a human-centred point of view [3]. For this reason the soundscape approach treats the acoustic environment as a multi-dimensional entity composed of several audible sources, some of which enhance and others diminish the effects on overall soundscape quality [4]. In 2003, Lercher and Schulte-Fortkamp reviewed the relevance of soundscape research for the assessment of noise annoyance at the community level…

Introduction
Environmental noise, and persistent high levels of transportation noise in particular, have been shown to have considerable effects on human health and well-being [1,2]. According to the WHO, one third of the EU citizens are annoyed by environmental noise and about 25% of the EU citizens experience sleep disturbances due to environmental noise [1]. According to the first round of noise mapping in agglomerations and on major roads, around 56 million people within agglomerations and 34 million people outside agglomerations across the EU are exposed to noise levels above Lden 55 dB [3], a limit level that has been suggested by the WHO to protect the majority of people from being seriously annoyed [4]. Railway noise seems to be a less serious problem than road traffic noise as only 6.3 million citizens in agglomerations and 5.4 million along major railways outside agglomerations in the EU are exposed to noise levels exceeding Lden of 55 dB, according to the first noise…

Abstract
This study proposes a spatial model to examine dynamic interactions among growth, economic geography, the housing market, and public goods in a small, open economic growth model. We emphasize the impact of transport, land and fiscal policy on the spatial economy. The economy consists of the industrial sector, housing sector and local public goods. The model synthesizes the main ideas in the neoclassical growth theory, the Alonso urban model and the Muth housing model within the neoclassical open, small-growth framework. We solve the dynamics of the economic system and simulate the model to demonstrate dynamic interactions among economic growth, the housing market, residential distribution and public goods over time and space. Our simulation demonstrates, for instance, that as the tax rate on land income is increased, the total capital stocks and the stocks employed by the housing and public sectors are increased, the land devoted to local public goods falls and land rents and…

Abstract
This paper introduces ABODE, an agent-based model for Origin-Destination (OD) demand estimation, that can serve as a work trip distribution model. The model takes residential locations of workers and the locations of employers as exogenous and deals specifically with the interactions between firms and workers in creating a job-worker match and the commute outcomes. It is meant to illustrate that by explicitly modeling the search and hiring process, origins and destinations (ODs) can be linked at a disaggregate level that is reasonably true to the actual process. The model is tested on a toy-city as well as using data from the Twin Cities area. The toy-city model illustrates that the model predicts reasonable commute outcomes, with agents selecting the closest work place when wage and skill differentiation is absent in the labor market. The introduction of wage dispersion and skill differentiation increases the average home to work distances considerably. Using data from Twin…

Abstract
In recent decades, the mixing of complementary land uses has become an increasingly important goal in transportation and land use planning. Land uses mix has been shown to be an influential factor in travel behavior (mode choice and distance traveled), improved health outcomes, and neighborhood-level quality of life. However, quantifying the extent to which a given area is mixed-use has proven difficult. Much of the existing research on the mixing of land uses has focused on the presence and proportion of different uses as opposed to the extent to which they actually interact with one another. This study proposes a new measure of land use mix, a land use interaction method—which accounts for the extent to which complementary land uses adjoin one another—using only basic land use data. After mapping and analyzing the results, several statistical models are built to show the relationship between this new measure and reported travel behavior. The models presented show the…

Abstract
In the context of integrated transportation and other urban engineering infrastructure systems, there are many examples of mar­kets, where consumers exhibit price-taking behavior. While this behavior is ubiquitous, the underlying mechanism can be captured in a single framework. Here, we present a microsimulation framework of a price-taker market that recognizes this generality and develop efficient algo­rithms for the associated market-clearing problem. By abstracting the problem as a specific graph theoretic problem (i.e., maximum weighted bipartite graph), we are first able to exploit algorithms that are developed in graph theory. We then explore their appropriateness in terms of large-scale integrated urban microsimulations. Based on this, we further develop a generic and efficient clearing algorithm that takes advan­tage of the features specific to urban price-taker markets. This clearing solution is then used to operationalize two price-taker markets, from two…

Introduction
Many studies have analyzed the relationship between the built environment and mode choice, but the underlying behavioral mechanisms remain somewhat less well understood. Higher densities, more diversity, and better local accessibility are often believed to result in less car use, more public transport, and more cycling and walking (for a more comprehensive review, see, e.g., Badoe and Miller 2000; Bartholomew and Ewing 2009; Crane 2000; Ewing and Cervero 2001; Handy 2002; Handy 2005; Stead et al. 2000; Stead and Marshall 2001; van Wee 2002; Van Acker and Witlox 2005). However, not all peo­ple that reside in high-density, diverse, and accessible neighbor­hoods travel by definition by public transport or walk and bike instead of using their cars. This is (partly) due to differences in more subjective and behavioral influences such as perceptions (Van Acker et al. 2010). It might be possible that one person perceives the built environment as unsafe, preventing him or her…

Executive Summary
Since the year 2009 half the world’s population has been living in a city, as shown by statistics from the United Nations. And the trend is ongoing. By the year 2050 it is thought that the number of city dwellers will increase by 85 percent to reach 6.3 bil­lion – that is, two thirds of the world popu­lation will then be living in cities. This means that cities will have to absorb the bulk of future population growth.
The challenges associated with this de­velopment are most evident in connection with infrastructure issues. Transport facili­ties, power and water supplies and waste disposal all have to keep up with the growth that is anticipated. But we often get the impression that cities are being driven by events – just responding to uncontrolled growth, rather than acting with foresight.
At the same time, urbanization does harbor opportunities for cities. For exam­ple, an attractive metropolis acts as a lure for business enterprises of both national and…